US warns maritime community of sanctions risks related to petroleum shipments to Syria.
Syria
French Ambassador Says Washington Could Do More to Help Shape Syria’s Future
The Bashar al Assad regime’s ever-tightening circle on Syrian resistance fighters could send a million or more refugees into Turkey and scatter thousands of Islamic extremists around the region, France’s ambassador to Washington warned Monday.
Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., he added, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met over the weekend in Istanbul to discuss...
https://news.usni.org/2018/10/30/french-ambassador-says-washington-help-shape-syrias-future
Panel: Tehran’s Quds Force Key to Russian, Iranian Interests in Syria
The Iranian Quds Force organizes, equips and finances the 50,000 Shia militia in Syria that provides the ground troops for the Russian and Iranian effort to prop up the Bashar al Assad regime, a retired senior Israeli Defense Force general said on Wednesday.
Assaf Orion, a military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said newly announced American determination to maintain a military presence in Syria until the Iranians leave is possibly overlooking the extent of Tehran’s...
https://news.usni.org/2018/10/18/panel-tehrans-quds-force-key-russian-iranian-interests-syria
HASC Panel Questions Pentagon’s Syria Strategy
A U.S. Marine with 3d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, attached to Special
Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, Crisis Response-Central Command, fires
an FGM-148 Javelin, a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile, at his target during
a live fire demonstration near At Tanf Garrison, Syria September 7, 2018. Marine Corps photo.
CAPITOL HILL — In Syria, the Pentagon appears poised to embark on a conflict with no clear end-strategy, members of the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and...
Report to Congress on Armed Conflict in Syria
The following is the Sept. 21, 2018 Congressional Research Service report, Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response.
From the report
The Syria conflict, now in its eighth year, remains a significant policy challenge for the United States. U.S. policy toward Syria in the past several years has given highest priority to counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL/ISIS), but also has included nonlethal assistance to opposition-held communities, support...
Marines Prepared to Use F-35Bs in Middle East Combat If Needed; No Other Naval Aviation Nearby
F-35B Lightning II, attached to the “Avengers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, sit on the flight deck of Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) on Sept. 4, 2018, while transiting the Indian Ocean with San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage (LPD 23) during a regularly scheduled deployment of Essex Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). The Essex ARG and 13th MEU is the first U.S. Navy/Marine Corps team to deploy to...